Associated PressBilly Hunter will remain in the mix of the players' side of the NBA lockout despite Monday's disclaimer of interest.

The five most interesting stories, rumors and notes in the NBA:

1. Negotiating tactic? With an odd half smile on his on face, NBA commissioner David Stern let loose yesterday with a stream of hyperbole during an interview with ESPN.

Unlike the measured, lawyer-speak statement he sent out through the league's PR department, the live interview revealed a different Stern -- a mix of his usual arrogance, but also with the bemused resignation of a man carrying out a game-plan he probably doesn't agree with 100 percent.

We all know what happened yesterday. The National Basketball Players Association rejected the collective bargaining agreement offer the owners made last week, then served a notice of disclaimer, essentially removing itself as the negotiating body for the players. The players, collectively, are now a "trade association."

I suppose if they were serious about that, they would be on the trade association list on usa.gov, alphabetically below the National American Securities Administrators Association and above the Tire Industry Association.

So there was Stern on ESPN, saying the move invited a "nuclear winter" while dismissing the strategy as a "sham," "charade" and "really irresponsible."

"It's OK to do it when you haven't lost a game," he said. "But to do it now, the union is ratcheting it up, I suppose, to see whether they can scare the NBA owners into something. That's not happening."

For Stern -- he of the threat to reduce the owners' offer to 47 percent BRI, flex cap, salary rollbacks -- to accuse others of scare tactics is like the pot calling ... well, let's not flirt with Bryant Gumbel/Jeffrey Kessler territory here.

We've heard for months rumors of agents pushing for decertification (a slightly different strategy). It, too, would have been a negotiating tactic, but part of the reason was dissatisfaction with union leadership.

You would think disclaimer of interest would address that dissatisfaction, but NBPA executive director Billy Hunter (or is that former executive director?) made it clear in an interview with NBA-TV that he will remain involved.

"Obviously, I'm a trial lawyer, I'm a member of the bar," Hunter said. "So I will be a member of the trial team along with David Boies and Jeffrey Kessler."

Hunter also said he thinks it's possible a court would try to force mediation on the sides, meaning he would still be in the middle of negotiations.

It's clear players think Monday's action is part of the negotiations -- risky, sure, but the goal is the same, to force a few more concessions out of the owners. They are calling Stern's bluff, and if it's -- as Stern said -- an irresponsible move, Stern deserves much of the blame. There was just no reason to set a false deadline.

Players surely love the threat of "treble" damages -- meaning triple payment -- if they can win an antitrust lawsuit against the owners. But it's another bluff, a negotiating tactic just as Stern's deadline was, too.

That's what we're watching now -- the sides bluffing and calling each others bluffs in an foolish game of poker. Fans don't want poker. They want basketball.2. Season gone? One of the common pronouncements Monday was that the 2011-12 is effectively gone, that an antitrust lawsuit could takes months or years to resolve.

But at least one sports law expert thinks there could still be a shortened season, even if the case stays in the court system for a while. Gabriel Feldman of Tulane University's Sports Law Program, tells the Orlando Sentinel's Josh Robbins that while a Dec. 15 start is unlikely, a season is still possible, saying:

"The litigation process could take place quickly enough to allow the players and the owners to determine how much leverage they have. It wouldn’t mean an entire antitrust lawsuit is litigated because that could take years. But the preliminary fights could take place in a manner of weeks and could be resolved in time to save part of the regular season. ...

"It’s not irreparable harm here. They can put the pieces back together in time to save the season."

View full sizeBrent Wojahn The OregonianRumors of Kevin Durant playing overseas have heated up.

3. The overseas option, again: As you might expect, Monday's events led to a flurry of rumors about NBA players playing overseas.

The biggest name being bandied about is Kevin Durant, with various European teams pondering bringing the two-time NBA scoring champion over. Ex-pat Wendell Maxey (a former Portlander now living in Germany) runs down the many Durant rumors.

Those who envisioned Jamal Crawford in a Blazers uniform might instead see (or at least hear about) Crawford in a Xinjiang Flying Tigers uniform. The Chinese team wants to sign Crawford, ESPN's Marc Stein reports.

Several NBA players from other countries, or those with foreign ties who have not already signed, could soon do so. Hoopshype.com is filled with Twitter bits about the likes of Andrea Bargnani, Pau and Marc Gasol, Tiago Splitter, Omri Casspi and Andres Nocioni.

4. The financial fallout starts: Today would have been the first payday of the season for most players, and CNBC's Darren Rovell got out his calculator and posted a few numbers on Twitter.

Rovell points out that the average player would have gotten $220,000 today, and that big stars are losing more, with Kobe Bryant missing a $1,051,832 check, LeBron James $667,603 and Dirk Nowitzki $795,535.

Meanwhile, sponsorship money will start to dry up for owners. Indeed, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that MillerCoors -- which, if you've seen any sports broadcast, you know spends heavily in sports advertising -- has been withholding payments to its NBA partners.

5. 'I know you lurking, man': In a way, you wish the players union had sent Allen Iverson into a negotiating session just to see what would happen.

Maybe it would have gone like the August deposition Iverson took part in as part of a lawsuit against him in Detroit (which was dismissed Tuesday). The Detroit News' Robert Snell obtained a transcript of the deposition, which in Snell's description "reads like a bad 1970s movie as a profane Iverson trades barbs with the lawyer and reflects on a controversial life and career."

The deposition had attorney Gary Lattimer -- who had won a judgement against Iverson previously -- going back and forth with Iverson. A sample section -- and remember, this is a legal deposition, admissible in court:

"I know you lurking. I know you lurking, man. I know you lurking,"
Iverson said. "How the hell you live with (it)? You've been involved
with three suits against me. You know what to do. You got a plan."

Lattimer: "I just go to work every day."

Iverson:
"I know, and I'm the one that pay you, and you know it. But not this
time jack. … I die before I let you get me this time."

Later, Iverson invites Lattimer to go out on the town, and after Lattimer say he's more of a homebody, Iverson razzes him about how he "ain't got no friends."

Makes you wonder if one of the lockout negotiations didn't, at some point, have someone say exactly what Iverson said after Lattimer ended the deposition by thanking Iverson.

"Go to hell," Iverson said.

Or maybe that's what fans will soon be telling both sides as this lockout trudges into the court system.